A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country by Steven L. Taylor, Matthew S. Shugart, Arend Lijphart,

4 exotic students in political technology research American democracy from a comparative standpoint, exploring how the U.S. political approach differs from that of thirty different democracies and what these variations eventually suggest for democratic functionality. This crucial textual content methods the next associations from a political engineering viewpoint: constitutions, electoral structures, and political events, in addition to legislative, government, and judicial energy. The textual content seems at democracies from all over the world over a two-decade time-frame. the result's not just a clean view of the much-discussed topic of yankee exceptionalism but in addition an cutting edge method of comparative politics that treats the us as yet one case between many. an incredible textbook for either American and comparative politics classes.

Why does the ecu take care of a few matters yet now not others? this can be the relevant query of this booklet devoted to agenda-setting tactics within the european. via a comparability of european and US coverage agendas and the research of 4 case reports in environmental and health and wellbeing coverage, this publication deals a brand new realizing of ways coverage matters come onto the european time table.

This well-documented ebook discusses the household politics of treaty reform within the ecu Union, from the failed referendums at the Constitutional Treaty held in France and the Netherlands in May-June 2005 to the preliminary rejection of the Treaty of Lisbon in eire in June 2008. The chapters, written through many of the most interesting students within the box of EU/European politics, express how eu integration has more and more turn into a contested factor in a majority of Member States.

Donald Trump, Silvio Berlusconi, Marine Le Pen, Hugo Chávez—populists are at the upward thrust around the globe. yet what precisely is populism? should still all people who criticizes Wall road or Washington be referred to as a populist? What accurately is the adaptation among right-wing and left-wing populism? Does populism deliver govt in the direction of the folks or is it a danger to democracy?

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For instance, are constituency MPs more numerous today than in previous years? Does the relative decline of public trust towards politicians and institutions result in the selection of more autonomous-trustee MPs or more dependant-delegate MPs? Outline of the Book The following chapter of the book, by the two editors of this volume, presents an analytical review of the role concept in legislative studies. It distinguishes between a functionalist and an interactionist tradition and discusses the reasons for their decline.

If we take a broad definition of legislative roles, the question is therefore: are MPs’ activities coherent with collective expectations resulting from their position within the legislature? If we adopt a more precise definition of representative roles – as most studies do – the question is: do MPs’ views about their work and especially about their constituents, have a systematic impact on their behavior? Or on their political opinions? Or on their capacity to fulfill collective tasks such as legislating, voting, debating, informing ministers, helping voters and so forth?

One is to what extent should our understandings of roles reflect the understandings of the politicians we study? Some argue that the everyday descriptive categories that politicians use are impediments to generalization and should be replaced by theoretically standardized concepts. Others feel we must work with these categories, at least in the first instance, because such categories are central to the motivations of the actors whose behavior we are trying to explain. This is a deductive–inductive disagreement and, in practice, a matter of emphasis.